I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. The recent disclosure by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, of Sinn Féin involvement in criminal activity and punishment beatings in Dublin is disturbing and must be condemned by all democrats. The response of leading members of that party to these disclosures has been to impugn the Minister's motives and to dismissthe revelations as electioneering. This is unacceptable.

In a parliamentary democracy it is the duty of all politicians, whether in Government or Opposition, to be vigilant and to ask questions about any dubious activity on the part of anybody purporting to be involved in the political process. When questions have arisen about the Fianna Fáil Party's past, we rightly have been vigorously and doggedly pursued by both the media and the Opposition. Elected office brings with it serious responsibilities, one of which is accountability.

Sinn Féin has travelled a long road over the past decade and Fianna Fáil, as well as others in this Chamber and north of the Border, have played their part in bringing that party into the democratic process. We are glad members of the party now sit in the Dáil. However, when it comes to democracy, there can be no half measures. There is no acceptable compromise between the ballot box and the baseball bat. The transition must be made completely.

There is a precedent for this transition. The men and women who founded Fianna Fáil in1926 unconditionally embraced parliamentary democracy. Six years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and the referenda North and South on the island that overwhelmingly endorsed it, it is now time that Sinn Féin disavowed paramilitarism and dedicated itself totally to the democratic process. There is no halfway house.

Sinn Féin likes to portray itself as the guardian of the working class. However, this self-appointed role does not sit easily with the information about their criminal activities recently disclosed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Those who prosper from crime and punish by savage beatings anyone who gets in their way are no defenders of the interests of the working class or the less well-off in our society. It is the working class communities that have suffered most from organised crime. Those are the communities that are attacked, undermined and destroyed by criminal activity. There are so many examples around Dublin city where this has happened over the years. It is important to stress that, if Sinn Féin claims to be the defender of the working class, it should be the first to stop such criminal activity rather than being ambivalent towards it.

These people are the enemies of society and it behoves us all, especially at a time when the people are considering their choices in the forthcoming elections, to highlight their activities and hold them to account.

I thank my constituency colleague, Deputy Eoin Ryan, for giving me the opportunity to address this important topic in the House. The time has come for all true republicans and democrats to stand up and be counted. I realise I have presented some serious challenges to the Sinn Féin leadership in terms of the provisional movement attempting to have it both ways, and to it being accepted as an orthodox political party on the one hand and, on the other, having at best an ambivalent attitude to criminality and violence. Specifically, my comments on "Morning Ireland" earlier this week related to persons associated with the provisional movement being involved in ongoing criminal activity in Dublin Port.

Those comments, and others of a more general nature, were not conjured up out of the air. It is without doubt that Sinn Féin and the IRA are two sides of the same coin. We hear few outside Sinn Féin itself seriously disputing that contention. I should in fairness point out, however, that my remarks on Dublin Port should not be taken as a direct reference to those who would be associated in the public mind in this part of Ireland with the leadership of Sinn Féin.

The briefings I receive from security sources strongly confirm the links between the IRA and Sinn Féin. In my view, the public is entitled to know that there is rock solid intelligence confirmation for what it has always strongly suspected. However, to suggest that, having provided this confirmation, I am then somehow obliged to disclose the precise nature of the intelligence briefings I receive from the Garda amounts to a flawed reasoning of "put up or shut up". No democrat should shut up on a real and sinister threat to the integrity of the democratic process, nor should any democrat have to put up with the mixture of violence and crime with politics.

I will not be drawn, on the basis of such flawed "put up or shut up" reasoning, into disclosing the nuts and bolts of the security briefings given to me as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, especially when such briefings relate to ongoing paramilitary activity, engagement in punishment beatings or criminal activity undertaken for personal gain. As my predecessors have before me, I rely heavily on the ability of the Garda Síochána to establish the extent of the continuing threat to the security of the State from paramilitary groups and others who, by their actions, threaten our democratic process. As a Minister privy to sensitive information, sometimes relating to the safety and security of the State, I do not intend in any way to hamper the continuing efforts of the Garda Síochána to deal effectively with such threats. It would be irresponsible of me if I were to disclose sensitive details of Garda security operations, aimed as they are at ensuring the protection of our hard-won rights and freedoms.

That, however, does not mean I should not or cannot share with all decent and law-abiding citizens the conclusions to be made from such security briefings. That is why I will not be deterred from saying that the IRA is engaged in ongoing serious crime and paramilitarism and that, unless it desists now from that activity, it will not be possible to convince other parties, especially the parties in Northern Ireland, that they should participate as equal and trusting partners with Sinn Féin in fully working the Good Friday Agreement.

The point of my speaking out on these issues is not, as some would argue, to undermine a political party or gain some short-term electoral advantage. That misses the point. What I and other responsible politicians are saying, is that Sinn Féin and the IRA are two sides of the same coin. If one side is rightly condemned because of criminal activity or continuing paramilitarism, the other will stand ineligible when it comes to sharing political office, whether in Northern Ireland or, at some future stage, in this jurisdiction.

I note that Deputy Eoin Ryan and I have one thing in common, apart from representing the same constituency. Both of us come from families that made considerable personal sacrifices in the process of establishing and building up the Irish Republic. It is not anti-republican, nor would it be anti-Sinn Féin, nor is it hostile to the peace process to point out what needs to be done by the IRA to convince all shades of Nationalist and Unionist persuasion that Sinn Féin is eligible to participate as a full and equal partner in the day-to-day running of the affairs of Northern Ireland or is eligible to do so in this State. It is much more in keeping with genuine republican traditions and values to tell the truths that need to be told, even if, at times, they are a source of discomfort to parties who pretend not to hear them.

There are important lessons that we can learn from history of the mortal dangers of combining in one movement a political ideology and violence. As long as the republican movement, as it calls itself — I regard Sinn Féin as having nothing to do with republican values — maintains an à la carte approach towards political activity and violence, the general public has every reason to be extremely wary about lending any electoral support to Sinn Féin.

I do not doubt that some in Sinn Féin have made and continue to make genuine efforts to shake off the shackles of the past. Perhaps too, the transition from paramilitary to parliamentary politics may in the past have needed a period of constructive ambiguity. However, as Deputy Eoin Ryan points out, almost six years after the Good Friday Agreement, any further ambiguity on paramilitary activity is destructive ambiguity. The day the leadership of Sinn Féin manages to convince everybody that the shadow of the gunman is genuinely fading forever is the day that genuine and stable politics will replace violence and instability in Northern Ireland. That is the day that full democratic politics will reign supreme and I earnestly look forward to it.

As an Irish republican who works towards and aspires to the unification of this country and the reconciliation of the people in both parts of it, I know that we have now arrived at the bare bedrock of the problems that prevent the complete implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. Provisional paramilitarism is and remains a deadly threat to that Agreement. I am saying, and I know Deputy Eoin Ryan agrees with me, it must end now.